Republican Lt. Gov. Winsom Earle-Sears of Virginia, a former Trump supporter, said Thursday that the vote sent a “very clear message” that voters said “enough is enough.”
“Voters have said they want a different kind of leader, and a real leader will understand when he becomes an obstacle,” Earle-Sears told Fox Business television. “A true leader understands when it’s time to step down. Now is the time to move up.”
Earle-Sears, who co-chaired a group of African-Americans who backed Trump’s 2020 re-election bid, also said she was “unable” to support another campaign by the former president.
John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, highlighted Trump’s role earlier this year in picking some inexperienced and controversial candidates who lost in Tuesday’s election.
In an interview, Thune said “there is no substitute for good quality candidates”.
“We had some very heated and competitive primaries this year,” said Dune, who was easily re-elected. “And in some cases, there were multiple forces at work, including outsiders making recommendations in some of those races.”
Thune said he hopes the party will start developing younger leaders. “You cannot build a party around one person’s personality,” he asserted.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who clashed with Trump during his first two years in office, called Trump “a brake on our candidacy.”
“We want to win. We want to win the White House, and we know we have a better chance of losing with Trump,” Ryan told WISN 12 News. He added that if there was a candidate other than Trump, he would have a better chance of winning the White House.
Former Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey also blamed Trump’s meddling for Republican losses in the state of Pennsylvania, and noted that Trump-backed candidates fared worse than other Republicans.
“I think my party has to face the fact that if loyalty to Donald Trump is the main criterion for choosing candidates, we’re not going to do very well,” Toomey told CNN television.
“There is a very high correlation between MAGA candidates across the country [‘Make America Great Again’, icónico ‘slogan’ de campanha de Donald Trump que significa “Tornar a América Grande de Novo”] and large losses or, at least, underperformance,” he added.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump admitted the party’s results were “somewhat disappointing” for not creating the “red wave” (the color of Republicans) in Congress that some polls had predicted.
However, the former president said in a message on his social network Truth Social that from his “personal” perspective, they were a success.
Earlier in the day, Trump promised to make “a big announcement” on November 15, hinting at a new bid for the White House.
With counting for the US midterm elections in its second day, Republicans are just nine seats away from a majority in the House of Representatives, and control of the Senate remains wide open.
According to projections by Politico newspaper, Republicans are leading the Senate with 49 seats, compared to 48 for Democrats, for a total of 100 seats.
All are open in Arizona and Nevada, with hundreds of thousands of ballots still to be counted.
However, with none of the candidates reaching the 50% mark, Georgia is responsible for dragging out the election process until December, when the state votes again to nominate a senator for Congress.
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